


In The Right Place

by unapologeticallydorky



Series: Chronicles of the Lost and Found [2]
Category: Fallout - Fandom, Fallout 4
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Gen, Parental Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 10:19:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13432641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unapologeticallydorky/pseuds/unapologeticallydorky
Summary: Sage knows not everyone appreciates Nick as much as she does, but it does get pretty difficult to hear. When some punk decides to push the issue, she pushes right back. Next thing she knows Nick is picking her up out of the Diamond City jail. Sage makes a half-drunk confession that surprises everyone.





	In The Right Place

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't know if I needed to properly tag it, but there is a paragraph describing a fistfight. It's not super graphic but it's sort of intense

It was a good night for a break. For months Sage had been working herself to bone for the Railroad. She’d long since gained their trust and they were well on their way to actually getting inside the Institute. Mostly she just needed to find more supplies for Tinker Tom. Talking to the traders in Diamond City was an easy place to find the bits and bobs they needed for the Transporter, though she wasn’t sure how much she trusted such a complicated device being frankensteined together. If nothing else, she supposed Tinker Tom was the right mad scientist for the job. 

The city never really stopped, but things were slowing down. The late dinner crowd was drifting off from Power Noodles. Sage nodded in Takahashi’s direction as she walked by. It seemed like the polite thing to do even if it didn’t register with the old bot. She wandered through the dimly lit alleys a while enjoying the tired hum of the city. Eventually she found herself at the Dugout Inn. It wasn’t the nicest place in Diamond City but it was comfortable in a way that The Colonial Taphouse wasn’t. The Taphouse was too uptight, she decided. Everyone had to live off scavenging these days but looking the part still meant being looked down on. Some things never change. At least the Dugout didn’t have any qualms about what it was.  
“Sage, my friend! It is good to see you. It’s been a while.” Vadim greeted her with his usual friendliness. “I see our good Mr. Valentine is not with you. You are here for pleasure over business, eh?”

Of course it was his job as a bartender to make his patrons feel welcome, but Vadim was particularly talented. His smile was somewhere between infectious and obnoxious.

“You could say that.” She said taking a seat at the bar. “I’m just looking to unwind for a while. I’ve been working too hard.”

Vadim let out a hearty laugh.

“Haven’t we all! But you are in the right place. Here-” He poured a small glass of clear liquid “-is the newest batch of my best moonshine. I’d say it is on the house, but you know how Yefim gets.”

Sage chuckled as she passed him some caps.

“Well, I’d hate to upset Yefim.” She raised the glass at him as a toast and took a sip. The moonshine burned her throat fiercely on the way down. Vadim just laughed at her coughing fit.

“You are a tough woman, but it seems my moonshine is tougher!”

The night wore on. Various patrons came and went, some more cheerful than others. Sage slowly sipped at the glass of hard liquor. After the first drink it went down easier, like it had numbed her throat. Vadim told her stories with varying degrees of believability. She didn’t mind; Vadim liked talking so much it saved her from having to talk about herself. She finished her first glass feeling on the far end of tipsy. She was nursing a beer when two young men walked in.

“You hear about Georgie?”

“Yeah, gone missing.”

“Pff, missing. C’mon, Ron, we all know he’s been snatched. Been happening more and more lately.”

They took a seat at the bar, a few chairs down from Sage. The two were lean and calloused, most likely from work on the city farm. 

“Yeah, fine, but what are we supposed to do about it, Miller? It’s not like we know where the Institute is taking them.”

They waved over Vadim, each ordering a beer.

“I tell you what we do about it: We go pay a visit to the friendly neighborhood synth.” He said the last few words venomously.

Sage’s grip on her beer bottle tightened.

“I don’t know, man. He’s been here forever. If he was bad-”

“No, he’s a smart one. It’s not his job to do the actual snatching, but he’s a spy, see?” Miller took a drink. “He plays like he’s a detective but he’s actually here to keep track of us and report on who to kidnap.”

Ron shifted awkwardly. 

“I still don’t-”

“We oughta march over to his office and see what that old tin can knows. I bet he knows exactly where our friends are being taken, we just hafta persuade him to talk-”

“You know, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I feel like you might want to take yours someplace else.” Sage piped up. She knew Nick wasn’t the most popular guy in town, but this was more than she could stand.

“And just who the hell do you think you are?” Miller put down his beer and turned to her. “Wait, I recognize you. You’re that new girl in town. The one that’s been palling around with the good detective.”

Sage took another drinking before facing the man.

“Yeah, I am. And let me just say, Nick Valentine has been a greater help to me than anyone else I’ve ever met. I guarantee he’s a better man than you. So maybe just fuck off with that kinda talk.”

“Ha, a better man. He’s not a man at all.” He scoffed. “I bet you must be one of them fancy new synths, that look just like real people. You’re the one that hauls people off, right? Valentine gives you the leads and you take the poor bastards away to get experimented on.”

Vadim cut in nervously.

“My friends, let’s relax. Sage is no synth and Miller- Miller is just, ah, worried for his friend. No harm done.”

“C’mon, man, let’s just finish our beers and go.” Ron put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “This isn’t what I signed up for tonight.”.

Miller shrugged the hand off and took a step towards Sage, attempting to be menacing.

“No, I wanna see what this synth bitch is made of. She’s the one that’s been taking our friends.”

Sage rolled her eyes. If only this idiot knew.

“You sure you want to do this, buddy? I’ve fought-”

She was interrupted by his fist colliding with her jaw. She fell backwards off her barstool and sat dazed for a moment, rubbing where she’d been hit. 

“You were saying?” Miller cracked his knuckles.

“Damn. Yefim! Get the guards!” She heard Vadim call.

Sage pushed herself to her feet and lunged at Miller, tackling his midsection. The two hit the ground hard. After a scuffle Sage was able to pin him down. She straddled him and got in one- two -three swings at his face. Another hard shot at her jaw disoriented her enough for him to force her off him. They stumbled to their feet again and threw themselves back at it. Sage ducked out from under a throw of his to punch at his gut and was strangely satisfied with the groan he let out. On her way back up Miller lashed out, striking her face in way that surely meant a black eye. The blows went back and forth for what seemed like an eternity. Sage could feel her strength waning. She needed to end this, and quick. She mustered all the power she could and aimed for his face. Her fist met his jaw, the same place he first hit her at, and he slammed back against the wall. She spat bloody saliva at him as he slid to the ground.

Then the guards burst in.  
____________

“Well, I never expected to find a girl like you in a place like this.” Nick looked at Sage through the bars of the cell. 

It had been over an hour since she and Miller had been dragged out of the Dugout. She was sitting on the lone bench in the cell, leaning up against the bars. She held a rag to her bloody nose. Miller was sprawled out on a dirty sleeping bag. He’d barely been able to make the walk from the inn to the security office. Sage almost felt guilty. But then, he had swung first. And he’d be fine in the morning.

Sage looked like hell. Nick winced to look at her; she’d come out the other side of a deathclaw fight looking better. Of course, a fight with a deathclaw mostly involved running away. If the guy laying on the ground was any kind of measure it looked like she won this fight- even with her black eye and bloody nose.

“You don’t see enough action out on the road that you had to start a fight in town?” He teased. He was trying to sound good natured about the situation. Sage had spent enough time around him to see the subtle disappointment on his face. She was supposed to be better than this.

“I didn’t start the fight.” She said, looking away.

“You sure ended it, though. Come on,” He gestured at the cell door, “I promised the guards I’d get you home.”

They spent a few minutes gathering her things from the guards and paying fees. Sage felt obligated to pay Miller’s fees as well, despite thinking he deserved his beatdown. The walk through town was tense. Sage wasn’t sure what Nick had heard about the fight- or how he’d heard, for the matter- and she knew he wouldn’t like her fighting on his behalf. She broke the silence when they made a pit stop at Power Noodles.

“So, how did you know I was there?” She said, paying Takahashi for her meal.

“Good old Vadim came running. Burst into the office and about gave poor Ellie a heart attack.” He replied, lighting a cigarette. “I said ‘surely you’re mistaken, it couldn’t have been _my_ Sage that got into a fistfight in a dive bar’ but I suppose I have been wrong before.”

“Did he tell you what happened?”

“Not exactly, no. Just that some punk was asking for trouble. Though I imagine he got more trouble than he expected.”

Sage got her noodles to go and they headed towards the office. The strained silence made its return. She was hesitant to tell him the night’s story, which was unusual for her, and he’d easily picked up on that. She wasn’t a client- not anymore- or a suspect, so he couldn’t use his “Tell Me Everything” voice on her. She was grateful for that.

“Goodness, you look terrible!” Ellie was all over her as soon as they walked in. “Do you need anything? We don’t have anything for the swelling, but I could put some tea on-”

“I’m fine, Ellie, you don’t need to worry yourself.” Sage smiled at the young woman, even as it hurt her face. “I’ve had worse. I just need to sleep it off.”

Ellie looked unconvinced. She opened her mouth to argue, but a yawn came out instead.

“God, what time is it? I didn’t mean to cause trouble so late. Why don’t you go to bed? I promise I’m ok.”

“Well, all right. But tomorrow you better tell me what happened.” She said, wagging a finger at Sage. Nick stifled a laugh.

“Yeah, of course.” Sage shifted her gaze away. “I- I’ll tell you all about it.”

That seemed to satisfy Ellie. Nick tipped his hat at her as she headed back towards her bed. 

Sage piled her stuff up next to the couch she and Nick had dragged in a couple months back. It took up space the cramped office didn’t really have, but Sage did need a place to stay when she was in the city. Damned if Nick was going to make her rent a room at the Dugout. With her things situated, she curled up on the old couch with her bowl of noodles.

“So are you going to tell me what happened or do I need to open an investigation?” Nick said as he hung up his coat.

Sage sighed.

“Can I at least finish my noodles first?”

“Sure, sure. Better be a good story, though.”

Nick straightened up his desk and flipped through a file while she ate. Sage struggled to decide what she was going to tell him. The truth, of course, but how? She always bristled when she heard the rude remarks people make about him. He always let it roll off his back, like oil and water. She couldn’t help wanting to defend him. The noodle bowl was finally empty. It was time to find her words and she was dreading it. Nick leaned against the side of desk, arms crossed. He just waited.

She cleared her throat.

“Well, I just went in there to relax. I’ve been doing a lot of, uh, official business and thought I could lay low for once. Vadim just talked and talked like he always does and I had a glass of his terrible liquor and it was pretty nice, you know?” She look at the ground. “But then these two guys walked in. One of them seemed nice enough, but the other- well, he’s the one that ended up on the ground. They were talking about one their friends going missing so I’m sure he was just scared and angry but he just-”

She glanced up at Nick. His golden eyes studied her. He wasn’t angry or judgmental. This whole situation just wasn’t like her; All he wanted was to know she was all right.

“-He was saying some terrible things about you, Nick. And I tried being nice- well, maybe not nice, exactly- but he took a swing anyway. So I kicked his ass.”

He blinked in surprise. 

“Me? You knocked a man out flat for bad mouthing me?”

“Well, he said some pretty rude things about me too but, uh, I was definitely more concerned about you.”

He shook his head and chuckled lightly.

“I suppose I should tell you off but your heart was in the right place. Of course, just about everyone in this damn city has said one thing or other about me. You can’t fight them all.”

“I know. I just couldn’t sit there and take it. It was like listening to someone shit talk my _dad_.” She mumbled.

That gave Nick pause. He tilted his head to side, not quite sure he heard her correctly.

“What- what was that?”

Sage felt her face flush. She hadn’t meant to say that part out loud. Some of Vadim’s terrible moonshine must still be in her system.

“Sorry- I, um-” She shifted uncomfortably. She never intended to talk about this. “-I mean, you know you’re my best friend, right? But I never told you that you remind me a lot of my father.”

She looked at him for second. His expression was unreadable.

“He, uh, worked with the Boston Police for a good twenty five years I think? He retired long before the old Nick would have even stepped foot in Massachusetts. But you sound so much like him sometimes.” She cracked a small smile. “Especially your terrible jokes. And he was a very _good_ man. I mean, things were scary in those days. People were afraid their neighbors might be commies, that kind of thing. Kind of like nowadays, I guess. He fell into that kind of thinking sometimes but he still always tried to help.”

She brushed some stray hair out of her face. She thought this would be harder to talk about. Now that the words were coming, it was kind of nice. Nick was the only person she could talk about the Old World with. They didn’t very often- it was still a hard subject for them both- but it was always cathartic when they could bring themselves to. 

“You just- You’re a lot like him. It’s part of why it’s so hard for me to let it go when I hear people slandering you.”

Nick had looked away from her. He was staring down at the ground with the brim of his hat covering his eyes, holding his chin. What he wouldn’t give to have tear ducts. Then again, maybe it was better that he didn’t. He always had been overly sentimental.

He could have guessed how the fight started. It wasn’t hard to see the way Sage always seethed when folks were less than polite towards him. He’d been dealing with it for as long as he could remember. While that didn’t make the unkind words easier to hear, they were something he was used to. Nick had few friends in this world but he counted himself lucky that ones he did have were doggedly loyal. It wasn’t just anyone that would stand up for a synth.

And Sage was one in a million. Maybe he deserved a friend like her, maybe he didn’t. But what had he done to merit being compared to her father? He was just an old synth, garbage tossed out by the Institute when he was no longer useful, doing his best to make right in this world.

There was something else, too. Something he hadn’t realized he wanted- maybe needed. It was an unspoken implication that touched whatever he had for a heart: That they were family.  
Certainly that was more than he deserved.

“I, uh-” he choked out. He cleared his throat. He knew it didn’t do anything, his neck was full of nothing but metal and wires. It felt right, though, it settled his nervous circuits. “I’m not sure what to say.”

Sage was struck by the emotion in his voice. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears but that couldn’t be right. He hadn’t sounded that rough since he first told her about the Old Nick.

“Are you ok? Did I say something wrong?” She got up off the couch and took a step towards him.

Nick huffed out a small laugh and shook his head.

“No, no, you’re fine, doll. It’s just, uh-” He looked up at her and felt an unbearable swell of emotion in his chest. She was the one with her face beat to hell, she shouldn’t be so worried about him. He closed the short distance between them and wrapped her in a hug. Words were his forte, but sometimes words just wouldn’t do. 

Sage was stunned. It took her moment to hug him back. She thought he might have laughed her off or make some joke about the old world. Maybe tell her not to tarnish her father’s memory by comparing him to what stood before her. She hadn’t expected him to be so moved.

Nick pulled away, smiling a broken smile. Sage wiped a few tears away.

“That was the kindest damn thing anyone’s ever said to me. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve that, but thank you. That- that means a lot.”

Sage started to reply when they heard a sniffling in the hallway. They looked over to see Ellie in her pajamas, covering her mouth with one hand.

“You two are just so dear, I can’t stand it.”

“Oh, for the love of- How long have you been standing there?” Nick tried to very suddenly pull himself together. He wasn’t used to being flustered like this. These girls would be the death of him.

“Long enough. It’s not like you were being especially quiet, anyhow. I heard every word.” She turned to Sage, who was bright red both from embarrassment and trying to stifle her laughter. “I think that’s about the sweetest thing I ever heard. I’m glad serendipity lead you to our office. I think it was the lucky break you both needed.”

“Thanks, Ellie.” She said. Nick flicked open his lighter for another cigarette; He glanced at Sage, found her smiling at him. He looked away and studied the far wall. 

“I’d have to agree with you too, El.” The corner of his mouth quirked up into a tired smile. “Glad Lady Luck saw fit to give me the two best partners I could ask for.”


End file.
